Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt met privately with President Trump at an exclusive Southern California fundraiser to push a 25% federal film tax credit, a proposal backed by the White House as part of a broader effort to reverse Hollywood's steep production losses.
Pratt sat down with Trump on Tuesday at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, where the two discussed what Pratt described as a plan to repatriate American film and television production that has fled to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Hungary. The meeting, which Pratt documented on Instagram and X, marks his second face-to-face with the president in roughly a month, following an Oval Office visit in early July.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the administration's interest. She told The Post:
"President Trump has long talked about making Hollywood great again and he is absolutely supportive of bringing back America's once iconic film industry, in all of its glory."
Leavitt added that Trump has "a lot of respect" for Pratt and believes his mayoral primary loss was "totally rigged." No formal legislation or executive action tied to the proposed 25% credit has been announced, and the meeting appears to remain at the discussion stage.
The backdrop for the pitch is grim. A recent study by Otis College of Art and Design and Westwood Economics and Planning Consultants found that California's creative economy shed roughly 114,000 jobs between 2022 and 2025, a 14% decline. Film, television, and sound employment fell nearly 30%. Traditional media fared worse, with jobs dropping almost 34%.
Those numbers reflect a problem that California's Democratic leadership has failed to arrest. States like Georgia and countries like Hungary, Canada, and the United Kingdom have lured productions away with aggressive incentive packages, while Sacramento has watched its signature industry hollow out.
Pratt framed the contrast in blunt terms in his Instagram caption after the meeting:
"While Gavin Newsom's commissioner is actively outsourcing production jobs to Hungary, and his rogue AG is trying to destroy CA production companies, the adults in the room are actually trying to repatriate the most quintessential American industry."
Pratt did not name the specific commissioner or detail the attorney general's actions he referenced. But his broader point, that state-level Democratic governance has accelerated the industry's decline, aligns with the job-loss data and with growing frustration among rank-and-file entertainment workers.
An unnamed source within the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union representing stagehands, technicians, and other below-the-line crew, told The Post that the organization agreed with Pratt's advocacy and welcomed Trump's support for a potential tax credit. For workers who have watched their hours disappear as productions move overseas, a federal incentive could mean the difference between a career and an unemployment line.
Pratt's trajectory from reality television personality to conservative political figure has moved fast. He ran for mayor of Los Angeles earlier this year, surging past his Democratic rival in early returns before mail-in ballots shifted the outcome and knocked him out of the runoff.
Trump weighed in on the race before the primary, telling reporters he wanted to see Pratt succeed. "I'd like to see him do well, he's a character," Trump said. "I heard he's a big MAGA person. He's doing well."
After the results came in, Trump was more direct. "Spencer Pratt...He shouldn't go away quietly," Trump said. "He should protest because it was, in my very strong opinion, that was a rigged election."
Pratt challenged the vote-counting delays that erased his early lead, though he did not advance to the runoff. The loss did not slow his political activity. By early July, he and his son were in the Oval Office with Trump. He captioned the photo: "I will never stop fighting for my community."
Now he has pivoted from local politics to federal policy, positioning himself as a bridge between the entertainment industry's workforce and a Republican White House willing to act where Sacramento will not.
Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for California governor, endorsed the effort and told The Post he has been working on his own plan called "Bringing Hollywood Home," which includes federal tax incentives. Hilton said he has been collaborating with Jon Voight, one of three special ambassadors to Hollywood that Trump appointed in January 2025, alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone.
"After years of being completely let down by Democrat politicians, it's refreshing to see people like Spencer, Jon, myself and President Trump making sure we stop jobs from being taken to other countries to save this industry."
Hilton called entertainment "one of California's most iconic industries" and said saving it would be a top priority if he wins the governor's mansion. The fact that a gubernatorial candidate feels the need to campaign on rescuing Hollywood says something about how far the industry has fallen under one-party Democratic rule.
Scott Meyers, a GOP candidate for Congress in California's 30th District, which covers Burbank and Hollywood, also backed Pratt's role. Pratt drew cross-ideological support during his mayoral run, and Meyers framed him as a pragmatist rather than a partisan.
"Donald Trump knows a serious man, and Spencer is that man. Spencer understands that Los Angeles needs results, not more ideology."
Meyers added: "We need to start electing leaders who put pragmatism ahead of politics and focus on actually fixing what is broken. Spencer can work with President Trump to bring production back to Los Angeles and get this city moving again."
Pratt capped his Instagram post with a lighter touch, "Speaking of lunch...best clam chowder I ever had", but the substance of his pitch carries real weight for tens of thousands of below-the-line workers in Los Angeles and across the country. Grips, electricians, set builders, costume designers, and sound technicians do not care about culture wars. They care about whether the next production shoots in Burbank or Budapest.
A 25% federal film tax credit would represent a significant intervention. No bill has been introduced, no formal proposal has been published, and the details of how such a credit would be structured remain unclear. Whether Congress would pass it, and at what cost to taxpayers, are open questions the administration has not addressed.
But the political alignment is notable. A Republican president, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, a Republican congressional candidate, and a former mayoral candidate who has tangled with LA's Democratic establishment are all pushing the same message: California's leaders let Hollywood rot, and the federal government is willing to step in.
Pratt put it plainly: "I'm committed to saving Hollywood, and I'm very grateful for the President's remarkable generosity and focus on this issue. He is very passionate about revitalizing the entertainment industry and we will not let Canada, or the UK or Budapest steal our lunch anymore."
On the same day, Pratt posted a single word on X alongside a photo with the president: "Power."
When an industry loses nearly a third of its core workforce in three years and the state government's answer is silence, or, if Pratt is right, active outsourcing, it should surprise no one that the people left behind start looking for help from a different address.
